The Starlacks salmon to Arcadia Sgr

With the support of Banca Euromibiliare, Ethica and Banco Bpm

Arcadia Sgr has acquired 100% of Starlaks Italia, making the fourth investment of the Private Equity fund Arcadia Small Cap II. The agreement was signed with the founding partners of Starlaks Andrea Balbo, Alex Brustia and Gaudenzio Brustia, who in 2012 had started the production activities of processing, smoking and packaging salmon in the province of Novara.

The company offers salmon both under its own brand and private label, selling its products mainly to important large-scale retail chains throughout the country while the HoReCa channels and Cash & Carry are served marginally.

At 30 June 2020, the closing date of the last financial year, the company recorded net revenues of € 16.1 million, recording a weighted average 2017-2020 growth of 13.8%. Starlaks also boasts important international certifications (MSC, IFS Food, ASC and Bio) which ensure the origin of products from fishing areas that comply with sustainability criteria, the traceability of fish products along the entire production chain, up to the final distributor, methods breeding and production that respect animals and the environment, treatment of products without artificial flavors, GMOs and dyes.

Arcadia will involve a new team of managers. Franco Rigamonti will be Chairman of the Board; Lelio Mondella, manager of the consumer goods sector with specific previous experience in the seafood sector, will serve as Chief Executive Officer; the Arcadia Business Partner Giorgio Mancarella, will instead take care of improving the Company's planning, control and reporting processes.

Simone Arnaboldi, Chief Executive Officer of Arcadia, who followed the transaction with the support of Giovanni Barbujani (Investment Manager), said: "Starlaks is a successful company, developed by the founding partners on the basis of the definition of high quality standards of the product, strengthened by sustainability policies which represent, for Arcadia, one of the main drivers in the analysis of its investments. The Company has ample room for growth both organically and through the aggregation of other operators active in the same market segment , or in neighboring segments of the fishing industry. The competitive scenario of Starlaks is in fact characterized by the presence of small-medium sized companies that could be aggregated to the Project".

Banca Euromobiliare acted as advisor to the sellers, Ethica Debt Advisory for Arcadia, with Banco Bpm providing the credit lines.